Method of preparing a printing form



-Oct. 2, 1956 EQU. JOHNSON I 2,764,935

METHOD OF PREPARING A PRINTING FORM Filed March .18, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet i ATTORNEYS Oct. 2, 1956 E. u. JOHNSON 2,764,935

METHOD OF PREPARING A PRINTING FORM Filed March 18, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 g INVENTOR W ATTORNEYS Oct. 2, 1956 EU. JOHNSON 2,764,935

METHOD OF PREPARING A PRINTING FORM Filed March 18. 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 1E INVENTOR Oct. 2, 1956 E. u. JOHNSON 2,754,935

METHOD OF PREPARING A PRINTING FORM Filed March -18, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 mvs/vron, Z. M WWAfiOR/VE United States Patent 2,764,935! METHOD OF PREPARING A PRINTING FORM Edgar U. Johnson, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, assignor to Mergenthaler Linotype Company, a corporation of New York Application March 18', I952, SerialNo. 277,267

4 Claims. (Cl. 101-4019.)

This invention relates to the printing of classified advertising matter and, more particularly, to means' for quickly facilitating the selection and separation of the individual type bars or printing slugs that are to be removed from the printing form after a particular days publication from the remaining type bars or slugs that are to be utilized in printing the following, days publication.

Each page of theclassified section of a newspaper contains hundreds of individual ads, indexed according to. topics or classes and spaced sequentially in columns, and often several pages are devoted to classified advertising.

Most classified ads are placed with a newspaper to run for a certain stipulated number of days, frequently only one or two, at the end of which time the ad is to be killed or withdrawn from print. Since the charge for these ads is very nominal, it is important, if any profit at all is to be expected, that the methods of handling the classified advertising be thoroughly systematic, economical and efiicient. It is to these ends that the present invention is directed.

In accordance with present practice, the ads so placed are turned over to Linotype compositors for the casting of the individual slugs or type bars. Subsequently, the type bars are arranged and locked in a large frame or chase in page form and the actual printing plate reproduced therefrom in a well known manner. After each days publication, the type bars which are to be killed must be carefully sorted and separated from the other type bars which are to appear in print in the following days publication. Although the methods or sorting, separating and preparing for the following day's publication vary from one newspaper to another, in every case the job is done manually by a hunt and pick system; that is to say, the make-up man prepares or has prepared a copy of the printed page having each ad marked according to whether it is to remain for the following days publication, to be killed, or to appear in print again at some subsequent time, and he must carefully peruse the type bars, column by column, removing and sorting out from the unlocked chase either the type bars that are to be again used, which would be carefully set aside in galleys. or the type bars that are to be killed, which would probably be melted down and the metal reused. In either case, the main job is to identify and separate the type bars of the ads to remain from the type bars of the ads that are not again to appear in print. The difficulty and inefficiency of the present systems can be somewhat appreciated by consideration of the fact that each page of the classified section may comprise several thousand very small type bars. The amount of time and work involved in connection with classified advertising in any publication. is so great in relation to the return, particularly with the cost of labor steadily increasing, that it is evident that simpler and more economical methods are desirable.

According to a specific example of the present invention, the type bars are initially identified by indicia or code before they are employed in printing. Thereafter, when the time comes to break up the printing form and to sort out and separate the type bars which are to be again used 2' from those that may be discarded, the chase containing all the type bars is placed in proper operative relationship with respect to a special type bar raising mechanism which serves. to automatically select and displace from the form the type bars of the ads which are to he first removed.

For example, in one embodiment of the present in.

ing positioned relatively to the rails according to the day of the week. The chase is then unlocked and the rails raised, with the result that thetypebars. which do not have slots coinciding with the rails (indicating, that they are to be first removed on that day) will be pushed up and out of printing position, where they may be readily picked by hand from the form.

An additional feature of the present invention is the manner in which the type bars are notched. One method, herein further described, is to cast the type bars with nonprinting extensions (later cut off) bearing indicia or code, such as prelocated lugs, which correspond to the days of the week with which the type bar is to be associated, and. i

to employ said lugs for properly aligning a plurality of, type bars with respect to a series of rotary cutting. blades, even though many of the type bars are to contain notches. associated with ditferent days of the week.

Other features and objects of the present invention will be more fully set forth in the detailed description which follows.

In the accompanying drawings, I have shown my invention in preferred form and by way of example, but it will be understood. that many variations and modifications may be made therein and in its mode of application which will still be comprised within its spirit. It is to be understood, therefore, that the invention is not to be limited to any specific form or embodiment except insofar as such limitations are specified in the appendedclaims.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation, partly broken away, of part of the casting mechanism of a Linotype machine equipped LVlth the present mechanism for casting the elongated type ars;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of plate shown in Fig. I;

Fig. 3 is a cross-section taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the left hand, vise jaw and lug casting plate;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a dial indicator employed in conjunction with the lug casting plate;

Fig. 6 is a perspective illustrative view of an elongated type bar produced from the casting mechanism shown in Figs, 1 to 5;

Fig. 7 is a top plan view of the cutter mechanism for notching the type bars;

Fig. 8 is. a cross-section View taken along the line 8-8 of Fig. 7;

part of the lug casting Fig. 9 is a side, elevation of the cutter mechanism shown in Fig. 7;

Fig. 10 is a view taken along the line iii-1th of Fig. Fig. 11 is a. perspective view of the elongated type bar shown in Fig. 6 after the notching, operation;

Fig. 12 is aside view of the type bar shown inFig. ll

Fig. 14 is a fragmentary front elevation, partly section, of the type bar raising mechanism;

Fig. 15 is a perspective fragmentary view illustrating the operation of the type bar lifting rails;

Fig. 16 is a side elevation of the mechanism shown in Fig. 13',

Fig. 17 is a cross-section taken along the line 1717 of Fig. 16;

Fig. 18 is a bottom plan view of part of the mechanism shown in Fig. 13; and

Fig. 19 is a detail view taken along the line 1919 of Fig. 18.

' In handling classified advertising, according to the present'invention, thetype bars or slugs 1 (see Fig. 12), hearing on their upper edges the matter to appear in print, represented by the reference character 2, are formed in their bottom edges with six out of seven notches 3 3, 3, 36, 3, 3, and3 the missing notch in each case serving to identify the day of the week with which the type bar is associated. For example, if the type bar or slug is to be associated with Sunday (and hence to be removed from the printing form after printing of the Sunday edition), the first notch 3 may be absent and the other notches present; similarly, the second notch 3 may be missing on a Monday slug, the third notch 3 on a Tuesday slug, the fourth notch 3 on a Wednesday slug, the fifth notch 3 (as in Fig. 12) on a Thursday slug, the sixth notch 3 on a Friday slug, and finally the seventh notch 3 on a Saturday slug.

It is evident that the notches can be formed in the type bars in many different ways, and consequently, there is no intention to limit the invention to any specific means. However, in the preferred embodiment illustrated, the type bars are produced as follows: (1) each type bar is cast with a non-printing portion or extension 1 (see Fig. 6) having a lug 4 rising therefrom, the relative location of said lug along the face of the extension 1 serving to identify the day of the week for which the type bar is to be notched; (2) a group of the extended type bars (they may have differently located lugs) is then subjected to the action of notch cutting blades, but first the type bars are positioned relatively to each other and to a missing blade (which determines the location of the missing notch, thus identifying the slug) by the transverse alignment of the positioning lugs; and (3) the extended portions 1 of the type bars are then cut off in any suitable manner. By casting the prelocated lugs 4 on the elongated slugs, it is evident that a large group of the slugs may be differently notched for different days in a single operation.

One means of producing the elongated type bars illustrated can be best described by reference to Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive. In the commercial Linotype machine, character bearing matrices 5 are selectively assembled in line by the operation of a keyboard; the assembled line is then transferred to the face of a mold 6, which is carried on a rotatable wheel or disk 7, for the casting of the type bar; thereafter the matrices are redistributed to their places of storage for further use and the type bar is ejected from the machine.

During the casting operation, the composed line is positioned in front of the mold between a pair of vise jaws 8 and 9 mounted in the vise frame 10 of the machine. The mold is then advanced into contact with the assembled line and the back faces of the vise jaws, and molten metal is forced into the mold under pressure and against the line of matrices 5 to produce the type bar or slug.

As best shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, a vertically movable slide 11 is set into the back face of the left hand vice jaw 8 and connected thereto by means of a dovetail 12. The rear face of the slide 11 (see Fig. 2) contains seven diagonally spaced casting recesses 11, 11', 11, 11 11, 11 11 which form the lugs 4, and the location of the particular lug on the extension 1 of the type bar depends upon which of these recesses is positioned at the operative.

or casting level (represented by the broken lines in Fig.

2). Thus, the recess 11 may be adjusted to the casting level for a Sunday slug, the recess 11 for a Monday slug, the recess 11 for a Tuesday slug, and so forth.

The adjustment of the slide 11 is made from the front of the machine by means of a fixed dial 13 and an indicator knob 14 having a pointer 14. The dial is appropriately marked for the days of the week and is attached to the front of a hollow housing 15 (Fig. 3) which is mounted on the top of the vise jaw 8 and extends above and clear of the vise frame 10 toward the front of the machine. The indicator knob 14 is attached to the front end of a short shaft 16, for which the dial 13 and housing 15 serve as bearings, and the shaft is provided at its rear most end with a small gear 17 meshing with a vertical rack 18 attached to the slide 11, so that the rotation of the indicator knob 14 effects the vertical adjustment of the slide. The top of the rack 18 is provided with an overhanging lip or stop 18 which contacts the gear 17 to limit the extent of downward adjustment of the slide. A spring-pressed ball detent 8 mounted in the vise jaw 8, is arranged to engage in one or another of seven recesses 8 formed in the slide 11, to aid in locating the latter in its different adjusted positions.

The printing characters 2 are produced on the type bar 1 by casting against the matrices '5, while the elongated nonprinting portion 1 is produced by casting against the rear face of the left hand vise jaw 8 in the area indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 2. It should be evident that the adjusted position of the slide 11, as determined by the indicator knob 14, governs which of the recesses 11 to 11 will be at the casting level and, consequently also, what the location of the lug 4 will be on the elongated portion of the type bar.

Turning now to the manner of notching the elongated type bars, which step may be performed by a cutter mechanism illustrated in Figs. 7 to 10, a plurality of such type bars, even though they may have differently located lugs 4 signifying association with different days, are positioned within the confines of a rectangular shiftable frame 20 and upon a stationary horizontal tray or platform 21. The frame 20 is slidably supported at its opposite ends in guide grooves formed in parallel members 22 of a table-like structure 22. The stationary tray 21 is attached at either side to the members 22 and directly underneath the frame 20 at its rearmost or start position. The type bars are placed on the tray 21 with their printing surfaces 2 face up, and they may be separated by partitions 23.

The type bars are first located in proper relation to each other by aligning the lugs 4 thereof in a straight line against a bar 24, which bar is pivoted at the rear to the frame 20, as at 24, and is intended to fall between the printing faces 2 of the type bars and the lugs 4. The bar 24 may be pivotally raised and lowered by a handle 24 and for accurate positioning of that bar, the free end 2 4 thereof (see Fig. 10) is wedge shaped and engages a V- notch of a block 25 which is carefully located on and attached to the frame 20. To insure precise alignment of the type bars, a horizontally swinging lever 26, also pivot- .ally mounted on the frame 20, as at 26 is adapted to engage the lugs 4 from the opposite side (see the broken lines in Fig. 7), shifting them against the bar 24 if necessary.

Having been properly positioned, the type bars may now be firmly locked within the frame 20. A vise bar 27, supported at its opposite ends within the frame, is freely movable in a fore-and-aft direction in suitable guide grooves of the side members of the frame. A pair of screws 28 may serve as the means for adjusting the vise bar 27 to locked position, but obviously other more suitable means may be employed, the screws 28 being intended only as illustrative.

The type bars, being locked within the movable frame 20, are now ready to be notched by the action of two series of rotary cutter blades 29, there being six cutters in each series. The blades are fixed to a rotatable shaft 30, mounted at opposite ends in suitable bearings of vertical supporting pieces 22 of the frame structure 22, and the shaft may be driven by means of an; electric motor 31 through a belt 32 and pulley 33. The rotary cutters are equally spaced, except for an absent cutter blade in the middle, thus leaving a. double space between the two series. As previously explained, it is the location of the unnotched portion of the type bar that ultimately serves to identify the type bar; the position of the type bar in relation to the absent cutter blade (which depends upon. the location of the lug 4 of the type bar) in turn determines where, along its length, the type bar will remain unnotched.

A long hand lever 36, pivotally mounted at its lower end to the right vertical piece 22F, serves to move the frame with the locked-in type bars toward the cutter blades 29.. Said hand lever is formed with a long slot 36 which re ceives a bolt 37 protruding horizontally from the right hand segment of the frame 20. The operation of the hand lever in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 9 moves the frame forward (and with respect to the stationary tray 11), subjecting the lower edges of the type bars to the notching cutter blades 29. If need be, the partitions 23 may be slitted in the bottom edges to accommodate-the cutter blades. Figure 11 represents a typical type bar. produced in the manner above described, containing the notchesv 3 3 3, 3 3 and 3 (the notch 3 being absent) and the slug is, according to the system above suggested,

identified with Thursday.

The next step is the removal or cutting off and discarding of the elongated non-printing portion 1 of the slug. This may be done in any suitable manner, as by the regular saw now in common use. The line of severance is indicated by the dotted line in Fig. ll, which is located between the lug 4 and the leading end of the type line 2. The final type bar 1 (with the elongated portion removed) is shown in Fig. 12. As will be understood, all finished type bars will be of the same length for lock-up in the same column of the printing form.

It might perhaps be well to explain that. the need for two series of cutters 29, as shown in Fig. 7, comes from the fact that the notches in the type bars may occur in any one of seven positions, even though one notch (which may occupy any one of these seven positions) will always be absent from each type bar. Thus, the Thursday slug shown in Figs. 11 and 12 has the fifth notch (3 missing, which means that that slug as cast will be located in the frame 20 in overlapping relation to both series of cutters, the double space between the two series, due to the missing blade, avoiding the notching of the slug at that location. The two notches 3: and 3 to the right of that location, will be cut by the first two cutter blades (at the left) of the second series, while the notches 3 3', 3 and 3 will be cut by the last four cutter blades (at the right) of the first series. Two further notches, designated 3 in Fig. 11, will be cut in the extended non-printing portion 1 of the slug by the first two blades (at the left) in the first series, but these two additional notches are of no consequence, being eliminated from the final slug by the cutting off of the extended portion of the slug (see Fig. 12). For a Saturday slug, whose missing notch will be located in the seventh position, all six cutter blades of the first series will be active but none of the blades of the second series. As the opposite extreme, for a Sunday slug, whose missing notch will be located in the first position, all six cutter blades of the second series will be active but none of the blades of the first series. As before pointed out, the position of the lugs 4 on the extended non-printing portions 1 of the slugs will determine the proper positioning of the slugs in relation to the cutter blades.

After notching, the type bars are ready for making up the printing form. Thus as shown in Fig. 13, they are arranged topically in columns separated by vertical column rules 39 (Fig. 15), the individual ads separated by horizontal cut-ofi rules (not shown), and they are then locked up in a chase 40 from which a stereo matrix is produced.

After printing, when the time comes to break up the page and to separatethe slugs tobe killed from those that-are to be saved, the locked-up chase is positioned on a special stone or table 41 and between laterally movable end clamps 42 and 43. These clamps are provided with downwardly depending projections or rails 44 (Fig. 14) which are free to travel to the right or to the left in slots 45 of the table. The clamps are prevented from being accidentally removed from the slots by plates 46 screwed Y to the bottom of the rails 44 (Figs. 14 and 18). The clamp 43 may be moved by a hand wheel 47 which is operatively connected to the clamp by means of, a gear 48, situated on the same shaft 49 as the hand wheel, and a rack 50 secured to the underside of the clamp (Fig. 18) and operatively engaged with the gear through a slot 45a of the table. The left-hand clamp 42, on the other hand, is freely movable in the slots 45 but is connected to the clamp 43 by means of links 51 through which any movement 1 imparted to the clamp 43 is translated to the clamp 42. The screws 52- of the clamp43 and the slots 53 of the links 51 make it possible to position the clamp 42 relatively to the clamp 43 tofacilitate the insertion and removal of the chase.

The table 41 is also provided: with a series of fore-and aft slots 55- (Fig. 13) which accommodate vertically movable rails 56 capable, upon retraction, of disappearing into the slots in the table and, when raised, tooperativcly engage the bottom edges of the type bars and lift them, unless the rails enter'the notches thereof. There are as many lifting rails 56 as there are columns in the chase,

a and the relative position of the chase on the table determines. which of the seven possible notches the rails will be in line to enter. The chase can be; properly located in the desired position by the operation of the hand wheel 4.7 and by setting the clamp 43 with reference to a scale or indicator 58, which is marked off according to the days of the week, mounted on the top of the table. This setting is further facilitated by a spring-pressed plunger 58 and a series of fixed detents 59 formed in the back of the wheel 47 (see Figs. 18 and 19).

The lifting rails 56 are operatively raised by the depression of a hand lever 60, pivotally mounted at 60 on the V spindles 63 mounted in the table 41. The hand lever 60 is attached to one of the spindles 63, which are provided at its leftward ends with downwardly depending arms 65 (Figs. 16 and I7) pivotally connected by a link 66. This parallel linkage. arrangement may be enclosed within a housing 67. The depression of the lever 60 from its normal or inoperative position indicated by the full lines in Fig. 16 to the operative position indicated by the broken lines in said figure effects the simultaneous rotation of the eccentric shafts 61 to lift the rails 56. A tension spring 68 (Fig. 16) facilitates the return of the parts to their normal or inoperative position. A clip 69 permits the hand lever 60 to be locked down in its operativeposition with the slugs lifted from the printing form.

By way of summarizing the operation of the type bar selecting and raising mechanism, the chase containing the type bars in page form is positioned on the table 41 between the clamps 42 and 43. The chase is then somewhat loosened to reduce the friction between the type bars, and the clamps adjusted to the left or to the right, relative to the lifting bars 56, by the hand wheel 47. The setting is made by the scale 58 according to a day of the week. The hand lever 60 may then be depressed, raising the lifting rails 56 into operative engagements with the type bars. If the lifting rail in each column rises in line with one of the notches, it will enter the notch and have no effect on the type bar; however, if the particular notch corresponding to the location of the lifting rail is absent from the type bar, the rail will push the type bar upwardly into a position where it can be readily removed from the chase. In some cases, e. g. where the notch 3 or 3 is absent, it may happen that the type bar will only be lifted at one end, but the type bar will be nonetheless accessible for removal.

Instead of adjusting the chase with reference to the lifting rails 56, the latter could be increased in number, say, seven for each column, and the hand wheel 47 utilized, through suitable mechanism, to select for operation those rails located in any one of the seven different positions ac cording to the slugs to be lifted from the printing form.

As another variation, the lifting rails, instead of raising the slugs which are to be discarded, could be made to raise the slugs which are to be continued in use in making up the printing form for the succeeding edition. This amounts to the same thing, because the whole idea of the invention is to separate the slugs which are to be continued in use from those which are to be discarded after their intended period of use. The printing form has to be made up for each printing edition, in any event, and some compositors might prefer to pick out the live slugs for rearrangement and leave behind the dead slugs for disposal. In such case, the notching of the slugs would be just the reverse of what has been described above, that is to say, those slugs to be discarded, instead of having no notch in a given position and notches in all other positions, would be formed with a notch in said given position and with no notches in all the other positions. This alternative arrangement might be preferable, since a single cutter blade could be employed to produce a single notch in the slugs. The lugs 4 could still'be employed to locate the slugs in proper cutting relation to the single cutter blade.

Should it be desired to avoid the lifting of slugs at one end, which might cause them to cant or tilt, the notched arrangement could be confined to the center portion of the slugs, as by the use of code permutations or cornbina-- tions, and more than one lifting rail employed to cooperate with said code combinations.

It hardly needs to be stated that the invention does not require that all slugs comprising the printing form be notched or provided with identifying indicia. It might very well answer the purpose if such notching or identifying indicia were confined to but one slug of the group for the ad to be killed, since the compositorwould know that all of the slugs of that group are to be discarded rather than just the one which has been separated out by the selecting mechanism. Even the cut-01f rule, which is commonly employed to separate individual ads, might be chosen for the notching or identifying indicia. Such a rule is cast in the same way as a type bar, and both are printing slugs.

It is evident, therefore, that many different variations and embodiments will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. The main feature of the invention is to make up a printing form which comprises a series of printing slugs distinguishable from one another by difierent identifying indicia other than the printing elements, so that such slugs may be separated in accordance with their identifying indicia in making up the printing form from time to time, say day by day, as the circumstances require.

What is claimed is:

l. A method of preparing a printing form made up of line printing slugs with different identifying indicia, which comprises the steps of casting the slugs with printing portions of the same length and with non-printing extensions bearing reference points located at difierent distances from 2. A method of preparing a printing form made up of line printing slugs in their bottom edges with difierently located notches to distinguish the slugs from one another, which comprises the steps of casting the slugs with print ing portions of the same length and with non-printing extensions bearing reference points located at difierent distances from the start of the printing portions, shifting the slugs endwise with reference to one another to bring the reference points into transverse alignment and thereby locate the printing portions in different relative positions, cutting the notches in the printing portions of the slugs in accordance with their different relative positions after such. alignment, severing the non-printing extensions from the slugs while leaving the printing portions of the same length, and then assembling the printing portions of the slugs in column formation with their ends in transverse alignment.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reference points are created by casting upstanding lugs on the upper edges of the non-printing extensions, and wherein the transverse alignment is effected by engagement of the upstanding lugs with a straight aligning bar.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein there are seven different reference points to locate the slugs in as many difierent relative positions to provide for the formation of as many different identifying indicia. or notched formations.

. References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

